Note: We don’t view te #WaveOfAction as a potential last gasp of Occupy. It is one more series of protests and resistance efforts that will continue no matter how large the #WaveOfAction protests are. It is up to the people how large the protests are, how creative and how effective. This is part of the process of building a mass movement — a movement that is much more than the occupy encampments were.

What will prove to be either the last gasp of the Occupy Movement, or its Renaissance as a social powerhouse, will lie in the success and its embrace of a highly-publicized #WaveOfAction which launches a major 90-day program of protest and resistance on April 4.

The Wave begins, symbolically, on the date of the assassination of Martin Luther King and ends, symbolically, on July the 4th. It will run from the date of the death of a dream that will not die to the date of the birth of a vision which has yet to be fulfilled.

So, what is the purpose of this ambitious campaign, who is behind it, and what can we expect of it – and of ourselves? The purpose is stated on its website and is quite clear.

We are a Movement of Movements

“The Worldwide #WaveOfAction begins April 4th and runs through July 4th.

During this three-month cycle, people throughout the world will be protesting corruption, rallying around solutions and taking part in alternative systems. The new paradigm will be on full display.

Studies have proven that it only takes 3.5% of the population taking nonviolent action to create meaningful and positive change. The #WaveOfAction gives all of us who want change a powerful opportunity to #EvolveSociety.

Change-makers all over the world will be engaged at the same time in an unprecedented wave of transformation.”

OK, that sounds acceptable (to most of the 99%, and certainly not the 1%). Now, who is behind this?

I confess that I can’t say that I have figured that out. It appears to be nobody. Or, perhaps everybody. Or, a coterie of patriots/anarchists/misfits who – such as when Zuccotti Park came to be occupied – are taking it upon themselves to rekindle that Occupy fire.

Word has it that #OWS #Anon and its allies put out a call to action for a World Wide Wave of creative community coordination and collaboration this winter. There were two organizing conference calls prior to April 4. One on March 25, and the other on April 2. (David Degrawis one of the facilitators)

Whoever started it, it can be said that occupiers around the world are standing with it, and many called in to declare that support and to announce events they were planning locally.

But, they are coming up against a very familiar foe – themselves.

The Naysayers…and worse

Anyone familiar with Occupy knows that it is rife with the usual suspects: gripers, snipers and full-blown trolls whose only purpose seems to be that of making sure that “solidarity” will never be had. “How dare (someone/something) do/be (provide the offense).” Everything is suspect, and anyone taking a lead roll is to be suspected.

Whether or not this will affect the success of #WaveOfAction will not be known for some time, but the offenders are being put on notice. Activist and creater of Occu-Evolve,Sumumba Sobukwe, had this to say:

“The Irony of those complaining about this ‘Wave of Action’ is that it will only be a failure if they continue to find fault with EVERYTHING that ‘reeks’ of coordination that might make people move beyond facebook,twitter and other social media ‘activism’ as well as their own silos of causes and interests to actually go out and organize with others in the streets.”

He continues, “When did an ‘occupy’ action ever draw more than a few hundred people that didn’t have unions, grassroots or other groups involved? Who are we fooling here? Occupy has ALWAYS been made up of different groups and individuals, and that’s where the concept of the ’99%’ came closest to being real or at least unifying in theory.”

So, in addition to proving Pogo’s theorem, “We have met the enemy, and they are us,” what other odds militate against the campaign having any major effect? Let me count the ways:

1. A largely indifferent press. Activists deride the “MainStream Media” for not paying attention to even the largest of its protests and greatest of its triumphs. Occupy is hardly alone. Last year’s March Against Monsanto which attracted a half-million marchers or more worldwide did not find its way into print or broadcast in any meaningful way. (P.S. Occupy folk helped make that march happen, as well).

A police force dedicated to crushing public dissent. Naaaah, that can’t be happening here in America, right? That’s what you find in Russia, or Egypt, or China. Thank God that “to serve and protect” applies to citizens in the street and peaceful protestors, yes? Here’s a retired cop who has a word or two on that, Captain Ray Harris. Oh, and not to forget Cecily McMillan’s experience with the Boys in Blue which finds her at risk of jail time for resisting their abuse.

Elected officials. One would think that people who are elected to represent us willactually represent us, and that they will be at the front of any parade or protest demanding justice and protecting civil liberties. Think again. If you ain’t got the money (and few occupiers/activists do), they ain’t got the time. And, if their party can’t co-opt your movement for their betterment, they’ll be the first to applaud authorities who arrest you. Hell, they will demand that force be used.

The 1%. You can be certain that the #WaveOfAction will be countered by a #FloodOfMoney spent to discredit its work and mission. Did I mention Fox? CNN? Stay tuned and see how money talks.

So, I leave it to you, the reader. Will this be a “Wave,” or a “Wave Goodbye” on the part of Occupy and its brother and sister causes? Will you listen to the detractors within and the enemies without and surrender to the impossible forces against you?

Or, will you take comfort in your own, amazing numbers and brilliance and continue to fight the good fight as so many have before you in America’s history. You are the dream that Martin referred to, and the nightmare that the 1% are waking up to.

No one but the most addled hippie really likes a drum circle, but only the war-like LAPD could possibly see one as any kind of threat. Hundreds of people assemble every Sunday by the Venice boardwalk for the Venice Drum Circle, a public gathering in a public space that rarely if ever results in any reports of bad behavior, except when the LAPD shows up to cause trouble for no real reason. (Even an LAPD officer describes the drum circle as a “peaceful occurrence.”) But for the past three weeks the LAPD has attempted to break up the peaceful gatherings once the sun has set, because them’s the rules, and the drummers have refused, because they’ve got a good groove going or whatever. So the LAPD has gone into full riot response. On a drum circle.

Last night, between 400 and 500 people were again causing no trouble at all when the LAPD came in to shut them down; when most people stayed, “an airship and multiple LAPD units executed a skirmish line [to] the push the crowd north,” according to Venice 311. A few people threw things, so they “called for a specialized unit from the Metro division which includes SWAT and mounted units for assistance,” which they had to cancel eventually because the crowd was like “whatever” after just 25 minutes. Everyone ended up dispersing pretty easily; one person who rushed the police line and another who “refused to move,” according to KTLA, were arrested.

LIVE NOW [4pm Sunday]: Solidarity with the Venice Drum Circle
1000 Ocean Front Walk ‪#‎WaveOfAction‬
Join us to bear witness to the evening dispersal orders issued to the Sunday Venice Beach drum circle. It is our human right to have 24/7 access to life sustaining waterways such as the ocean and drum alongside waves without being forced out by riot police.

Scheduled for today so we can protesttheconference of Conspirators, those business and government officials who are meeting to force fracking through against the public interest and before the public have been warned of the danger.

Officials who have their head in a box and are prepared to destroy the world for profit.

We know they have re-located their conference for fear of us and we know where it is.

We will stick to our original plan: meet at our Battersea studio, march over the bridge to the King’s Rd, join fellow protestors at Knightsbridge tube then move to the original location of the conference, a stone’s throw away at Jumeira Hotel. We will give our speeches outside and then go to the secret location.

Battersea. We were ready. I had given all our workmates the day off. Cindy the youngest member of Climate Revolution had done a great job mustering the troops and organizing our students to make plaquards. Others who joined us were in carnival mood, dressed as zombies and ghouls.

I hadn’t wanted a carnival. It’s a matter of life and death and I didn’t wear my warpaint. We want to attract “ordinary people” and by that we mean people who aren’t normally political. But our activist colleagues were right we needed the Carnival. We were only expecting up to 500 people and that’s how it turned out. It was a week day, also Budget Day. Did the conspirators plan that?- don’t underestimate their fear of the public. John Sauven, head of Greenpeace couldn’t come because he was dealing with press on the budget. And what about students? Simon, a student activist friend should have been organizing but he didn’t even show up: because he’s doing his exams. Come on !

We looked great. There was lots of press. I was asked to lead the procession. I bowed and put my hands together in prayer, as you would before a battle. Then off we were!

People in King’s Rd hailed us in support and Cindy shouted out, keeping us all together because of having to stop for traffic. I talked to some of my friends as we marched along. At the Jumeirah Hotel we met Rhythm of Resistance, a samba band and campaigner Nigel with his demo/disco bus. In front of the hotel was a little square where we gave our speeches and thanked the fighters in the anti-fracking camps. Vanessa Vine From Balcombe is an inspiring speaker and full of powerful information. She’s been fighting fracking for 3 years and is just back from America. The queen of it all was scientist Tisha who was responsible for much of the organization and acted as a master of ceremonies –the prettiest ghoule you ever saw but she stays anonymous so you can’t see a photo of her. Then some of us got on Nigel’s bus and went to the secret location near to Bunyon Fields near Old St.

When we got near I looked out the window and saw another demonstration walking down the main road and they looked really interesting, lots of them, then I read the plaquards and realized it was us, the others had come on the tube. (They had a good time explaining to people what we are about – life and death, yeah!) We met our mole who had been inside the conference so we are informed of the conspirator’s agenda. See their confidential presentation www.talkfracking.org. The secret location was Armoury House on City Rd.

The samba band was really important – lots of drumming outside the gates. The press asked me,

“How do you feel that the pro-frackers have come here to escape you, protected by the army?”

You sometimes worry that you’re so small against the enormous power of theconspiracy to destroy – press, politics, business, banks – and what perhaps only seems to be the acquiescence of the general public. It is heartening to read those articles of mutual support in the fight, from journalists of the standard press, especially the Guardian and those on the Internet and of course the support of all the NGO’s and sometimes great groups of people. At our demo someone gave out flyers for the Green Party, a great group with whom I entirely agree. They start by condemning austerity. If all the world would put their financial programme into practise we could save the earth and economic collapse.

It’s so important to demonstrate for your beliefs. We will win because we have to.

‘Bogart was cool: no one used the word then, but it’s the term everyone reaches for now,’ writes the literary scholar Joel Dinerstein in American Cool, which he co-authored with photographic scholar and curator Frank H. Goodyear

Besides Bogie, the reach of those who make cut in this sleek book of photographs interspersed with essays includes Johnny Depp, civil rights protestors, Miles Davis as he appeared on the cover of Ebony, Elvis, Robert Mitchum, Jack Kerouac, Amiri Baraka, Bob Dylan, Anita O’Day, Madonna, Tupac Shakur, Susan Sontag, Selena, and sundry others.

For years, cool fell into the gray zone of semantics like that on which a Supreme Court justice meditated in consideration of pornography: he admitted that he could not define it, but he knew it when he saw it.

We should hope that the Supremes will attend the American Cool exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. (American Cool is the catalog for that exhibition.) This show is an impressive exercise in semantics and a grand slice of national history; the photographs are thoughtfully orchestrated, the ideas behind the concept argued with intelligence and flash.

We can picture the quickening pulse of political and news celebrities in the pagan city on thePotomac, milling about the gallery, wondering why the photographs show none of them. (The Obamas are only mentioned in the text.) But in a city where politics has degenerated into a tawdry suburb of celebrity, the edgy outsider nature of cool doesn’t sync with democracy as reduced to a muddy floor show on the nightly news.

‘Cool figures are the successful rebels of American culture,’ writes Dinerstein, the James H. Clark Endowed Chair in American Civilization at Tulane University. ‘To be cool is to have an original aesthetic approach or artistic vision—as an actor, musician, athlete, writer, activist or designer—that either becomes a permanent legacy or stands as a singular achievement.’

That explains Brando, Duke Ellington, Greta Garbo, Muhammad Ali and of course James Dean. Obama seems to have edged into the text by virtue of being dubbed ‘Mr. Cool’ in a magazine article. The president’s charisma lands him, at least in passing prose, on the same page with an image of Walt Whitman and the front page of Leaves of Grass.

Men far outnumber women in American Cool. ‘It is rare to find an article, website, or blog post declaring anyone ‘Ms. Cool,’” writes Dinerstein, “despite the plethora of cool women in this book, from Georgia O’Keefe, Bessie Smith, and Dorothy Parker to Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde, and Missy Elliot.’

Walt Whitman ‘first carved out a space for cool by valuing personal experience and bearing over education and experience.’

The gender tilt lies in “the presumed association between cool and American masculinity,” he notes, and “the persistence of a double standard where independent, sexually confident women are concerned.”

Double standards, of course, are made to be exposed.

American Cool does have curious omissions. Bill Clinton, who played saxophone with sunglasses in 1992 while campaigning on the talk show hosted by Arsenio Hall (who is absolutely cool) and went on to an impeachment drama for his sexual rebellion, did not make the cut. The book does not explain Clinton’s absence, which seems, like, un-cool.

John Wayne had a macho, bravura image that sizzled hot, but he’s in this parade as ‘the stoic tough guy’ who once said, ‘Mine is a rebellion against the monotony of life.’ Cool enough.

But the scandal of this book and exhibition is that Marilyn Monroe is nowhere depicted. One of the sexiest movie stars of all time, the woman who married Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, is not cool? Says who? And Audrey Hepburn is? And Susan Sarandon, too. No offense to them, but stiff-arming Marilyn Monroe is grounds for—well, not a congressional investigation, we don’t want to get them near this. Let’s settle on a televised debate at NEH.

Hemingway is shown on p. 89, pensive with rifle at a pheasant shoot in Idaho. ‘He wrote in a terse, clipped style that featured stripped-down dialogue and characters unanchored from society. While he portrayed man as essentially alone, he admired ‘grace under pressure,’ a phrase often considered synonymous withcool,’ writes Frank H. Goodyear III, co-director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, who shows a wise hand and keen eye in arrangement of the images in book and exhibit.

Cool as persona and trait arose in the movies and music of the early and middle decades of the last century; it had a strong African-American stamp. Jazz was outsider music that moved mainstream, and then with bebop moved back on the edges. Musicians such as Charlie Parker, Count Basie, and Lester Young exuded the aura of outsider-as-insider. Zora Neale Hurston occupies a page in a photograph as threshold-breaker, justly so. But Wynton Marsalis is nowhere in American Cool. Maybe he’s too inside to go back outside. He’s still a study in cool.

As sports photographers gave an icon like Ali his heft in the popular culture, the oceanic coverage of rock and roll put stars like Jimi Hendrix on the cover ofRolling Stone, which is always cool.

But there are no pictures here of Scarlett Johansson or Halle Berry. The editors chose ‘a certain triangulation of factors aligned in mysterious balance’ on the selection process, which includes a ten-year period of probation or candidacy consideration for a potential Coolite, a time in which status can crash in scandal or somnolently diminish.

‘In the next generation it is likely that women will outnumber men for lasting iconic effect and innovative artistic impact,’ Dinerstein writes. Those who make the potential list include Esperanza Spalding, Janelle Monáe, Pink, Jennifer Lawrence, Tina Fey, Ani DiFranco, Connie Britton—and (drum roll) Michelle Obama and Rachel Maddow. The First Lady will presumably achieve a plateau of cool once she is out of the White House, no longer bound by media expectations of decorum, and free to speak her piece. Michelle and Barack may be the ultimate cool in politics.

But Rachel Maddow is already cool, many times over, by treating political hypocrisy as a form of farce with intellectual agility you don’t find among other anchorpersons. If anyone in the media stands in the front line of cool, it’s Rachel.

Jon Stewart is in American Cool because he is Jon Stewart. But there is no presence for Steven Colbert. Another mystery. Was it something he said?

‘Of the actresses who emerged in the early 1990s with the moxie to walk the line of regular gal and badness,’ continues Dinerstein, ‘there was a cohort including Winona Ryder, Jennifer Lopez, Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore, Halle Berry, and Uma Thurman. Each of these actresses let the industry shape their careers or cuddled up with the media, became cover girls, or self-destructed.’

There you have it. Media-cuddling can be a kiss-of-anomie for women on the cusp of cool. Men who are cool, or wanna be, can’t be seen as cuddling with the media though they need all the media they can get to stay in the magazines. Goodyear writes learnedly of the role magazines played in capturing those who became cool. Influential photographers who covered jazz, sports, rock, and the movie world were pivotal to this cultural process. Magazine exposure makes a difference, even today as ‘the paparazzi continue to provide largely unscripted images’ that put the cool person in a moment of drama, off-script, in the life s/he enacts.

‘Those who convey this magnetic attraction often feel as though they are living in two bodies—one that belongs to the world and another that is their own and often hides in plain sight,’ writes Goodyear. His analysis also applies to any number of garden-variety celebrities, even Chris Christie, at least the part about two bodies, or let us say “selves,” one hiding in plain sight.

With smaller photographs arranged through the text, more than half of the book is given over to full or half-page pictures of the anointed cool, with short biographical commentary. You might call this the Hot 100 but Top 100 is probably more appropriate. The range of choices is intriguing.

Number 1 is Walt Whitman, ‘who first carved out a space for cool by valuing personal experience and bearing over education and experience.’ The author of the classic Leaves of Grass was also ‘a proto-hippie and sensualist who celebrated the dignity of work, a gay man who wrote lyrically of the male body.’ Cool then, cool now, cool forever, Mighty Walt.

Make no mistake, DJ Premier and Pete Rock are two of the best hip hop producers in the history of the game. Together they have been behind some of the biggest and most iconic hip hop tracks that we’ve ever heard and now they are coming to Australia for a special show called Collusion that ought to see us get the best of both of them in one huge show.

For those in the know, Premier will always be remembered most for his work alongside the late, great Guru in Gang Starr from 1985 through to 2005, though on top of that, his discography includes tracks for everyone from Heavy D & The Boyz to Neneh Cherry, Nas to The Notorious B.I.G., Bone KRS-One to Jay-Z and so many more.

Pete Rock has dropped a bunch of his own records over the years as well as records in collaboration with a number of artists – most notably CL Smooth. On top of that he has been responsible for the production on tracks for Ghostface Killah, Talib Kewli, Run DMC, Common, Busta Rhymes and heaps more.

The performance will feature both Premo and Pete in collaboration and against each other as a duo and we have no doubt that either producer is going to complement the other pretty perfectly. We’re not sure there has ever been such a showcase of hip hop production on an Australian stage before and we can’t be certain there’’ll be anything as epic as this in Australia ever again.

Talk of the late Christopher Wallace is the jumping off point for a list of what Fredro refers to as fallen soldiers. Relationships with the likes of Jam Master Jay, Tupac Shakur and group members X-1 and Big DS pepper the conversation. If Nas’ infamous line about sleep being the cousin of death is any indication, that at least partially explains why Fredro and Sticky have been so charged for the last 20-plus years. In an industry that often caters to and rewards being mentally comatose, sometimes a well-executed scream is the best option…even at 7:00 a.m.

With aggressive tracks such as the iconic ‘Slam‘ or their latest track, ‘Wakedafucup,’ it’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming Onyx simply reserves their high energy level for the recording booth. That would be an incorrect assumption. When Fredro Starr and Sticky Fingaz call from Samara, Russia at 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time—due to the 12-hour time difference between Los Angeles and Samara—the pair are just as amped up as they sound on wax.

Sticky Fingaz yells, “Wake the fuck up!” at least twice. Maybe it’s in jest, given the early interview time, or maybe he’s dead serious in regards to how Onyx feel about Hip Hop. Either way, he and Fredro feed off of one another’s energy. This is especially true when discussing their upcoming Wakedafucupalbum, which was produced entirely by the Snowgoons.

‘I think this Wakedafucup album with these niggas from Germany is gonna set the fuse off for the New York sound again,’ Fredro explains. ‘You got other niggas coming out representing that New York sound, and this is gonna be the start of it. That’s why we’re dropping it on March 9, which is the anniversary of Biggie’s death…

Damon Albarn, right, is joined by #DeLaSoul’s Vincent Mason while performing during the SXSW Music Festival Friday March 14, 2014, in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP) #cookednews

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Get ready for a lot of new De La Soul music.

Dave Jolicouer, a member of the classic hip-hop group, says a new mixtape will be issued in the next week or so and the trio is working on two full albums they hope to release later this year.

A little more than a month ago, De La Soul gave away its entire catalog for free on Valentine’s Day, and the result showed the trio there’s plenty of love still out there 25 years after issuing the landmark release ‘3 Feet High and Rising.’

‘It motivated us even more,’ Jolicoeur said before a surprise South By Southwest appearance with Damon Albarn on Friday night. ‘We’re already in the process of recording two albums, but actually it made us feel like we really, really need to get this done. People are still fans, still really love the music and let’s do it for them.’

The response to the group offering seven full-album downloads online went beyond modest expectations — demand was so heavy that it temporarily overwhelmed the servers and the hip-hop group had to ask fans to be patient.

The numbers were ‘insane, I’m afraid to say it,’ Jolicouer said. ‘I’m not really allowed to, but I’ll say I was expecting it to be somewhere between 15,000 and 25,000 people. Man, you can multiply that by whatever number you can throw in the air, so it was ridiculous.’

He said the move was not a marketing campaign, but a gift to fans, who only had to provide an email address. The group’s music is difficult to find for a number of reasons, including tangled sample and ownership issues and now-shuttered labels.

‘I thought it was really cool,’ Jolicoeur said. ‘We had an opportunity to speak to our attorneys, and, you know, in hindsight it was maybe not the smartest thing to do. But in the midst of it, a lot of people think, ‘Great campaign, great promotion, great publicity stunt,’ but it really wasn’t. …

‘It was just, ‘What can we do for Valentine’s Day? Yo, we can give away our catalog. Yeah, why not?’

Of the new two albums the group is working on, he said one will be sample-based and one will be recorded with a live band, Los Angeles’ Rhythm Roots Allstars. The mixtape will include some new songs as well as some reworked material.

‘But in a De La fashion, it’s just not a mixtape with 11 songs,’ Jolicoeur said. ‘There are skits and things. It’s cool. That’s coming out in about a week, and hopefully God willing more De La music.

‘That’s all we do. There won’t be any movies. There won’t be any fashion lines, nothing like that. Just music.’